LEED Programme (Local Economic and Employment Development)

Conference on Training Strategies for Regional Competitiveness and Inclusion Through Employment, Seoul, Korea, 12 October 2005

This event was co-organised with the Korean Labour Institute, a LEED Partner. Sylvain Giguère, Deputy Head of the LEED Programme, and Hyo-Soo Lee, president of the Korean Labour Economics Association, gave keynote speeches. Among the speakers from LEED were Randall Eberts (W. E. Upjohn Institute), Hugh Mosley (WZB), Xavier Greffe (Sorbonne) and Laura Smith (Exeter). The Vice-Minister of Labour and the Assistant Minister for Employment attended the conference and took an active part in the debates.

Korea is looking to transform its labour market policy as a tool to foster regional competitiveness and social cohesion. It realises that a lack of policy coordination and strategic thinking at regional level impede on local economic growth and well-being. LEED urged caution in trying to adopt models from abroad, such as area-based partnerships and decentralised frameworks (see agenda).

This conference aimed to to examine the new paradigm for labour market policy as a tool for competitiveness and social cohesion at local and regional levels. A joint publication is in preparation. It advised to start experimenting with mechanisms to help with co-ordination, adaptation and participation:

i) add flexibility in the management of programmes that can be relevant in a broader regional perspective;